It seems like they're all really expensive, with most halfway decent ones being over $1000. It also seems like they're really finicky and hard to get working consistently.
Are there any 3d printers that are actually a refined product, something you can just get and start using? I don't want to spend most of my time fiddling with the settings and having to buy a ton of upgrades in the hopes of getting it to be a functional machine that can actually be used to print out parts.
If there are any out there that are basically self-maintaining or highly automated in terms of configuring themselves correctly, is it only the really expensive ones, or are there more affordable sort of "get and forget" printers that you can just set up and start using?
Whatever you get, look for auto-leveling in the features. Fuck manual leveling.
If you have a spare raspberry pi, octoprint bed level visualizer takes a lot of the hassle out of it. But yeah, really sucks when you have to level it by feeling a piece of paper.